


The Aroma of Basil

by lar_laughs



Category: Leverage
Genre: Gen, Misunderstanding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-23
Updated: 2012-04-23
Packaged: 2017-11-04 04:08:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/389581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lar_laughs/pseuds/lar_laughs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eliot is on the war path but Parker and Hardison are absorbed in themselves for the moment and don't give his anger much thought.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Aroma of Basil

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [thefandomzoo](http://thefandomzoo.dreamwidth.org/) challenge - color (just in case you miss it, I used _basil green_ for this story). Also for meridian_rose who gave me the prompt: a misunderstanding.

"Who trampled - TRAMPLED - my basil?" Eliot came storming through the back door, a limp plant clutched in his fist. 

The look on his face would have quelled a normal person but Hardison barely acknowledged the man. All four of his computer monitors were set to various portions of the new world he was immersed in. No... immersed was a bad word. He was totally and completely consumed so that even his heart was beating in time with the theme music that still filtered through the headphones that circled his neck. Since he'd downloaded the newest Geek Nirvana game, he hadn't slept and had only eaten foods from the main two food groups - Salt and Sugar. The orange soda containers stacked beside the garbage can under the desk were increasing in number exponentially. It was, as Alec kept muttering under his breath, the best weekend ever.

They'd had four glorious days off amongst a streak of jobs that had kept the team running here and there and everywhere. Hardison played GN, Parker napped on the new comfy couch that had been delivered only a few weeks ago when the three of them had finally decided on a color schematic for the house, and Eliot cooked. Smells the likes of which had never been smelled before outside of 5 star restaurant had wafted through the whole house but no one had cared. When he'd called them for dinner, Parker had wandered in to the kitchen long enough to grab a full plate, eat it while standing over the sink without caring that Eliot was glaring at her, and wandered back out without saying a word. Hardison never looked up.

So they hadn't eaten the food he'd slaved over. No big deal. It had been a selection of experiments, done mostly to see if he could figure out the nuances of the recipe. He'd make it again, better the second time than it ever had been the first. Eliot could even handle the fact that he'd had to do his own dishes, something they'd been very explicit about when they'd made up the roommate agreement.

But he would always draw the line on the ruination of his garden. He'd put in too much time tending the fledgling plants to put up with any sort of destruction. One of the two other people in the room had been the one who had desecrated his private place and they would pay for their actions.

"Who," he repeated slowly, in case they missed any of the important words again, "trampled my basil?"

"Your what?" Parker rubbed at her eyes. Eliot always thought she looked adorable when she woke up, her hair flying this way and that, but the last thing he wanted right now was to think of something that might leach away his anger. Instead, he looked back down at the savaged plant and remembered the hours he'd already spent tending his garden.

When only silence answered him, he looked back up. Parker was in the midst of a huge yawn and Hardison, when he looked over at him, was still fixated on his screens. "Basil," he shouted, shaking the poor abused plant in his hand. "It's green. Has broad leaves. You would have started wanting pizza as soon as it all got ruined. Don't tell me you don't remember trampling it."

"I don't remember." This time, when she stretched her arms up over her head, Eliot couldn't stop staring and the basil in his hand no longer mattered to him, crushed almost beyond recognition as it was. For a moment, he almost let it drop out of his hand as he watched the look of pure satisfaction settle on Parker's face as she worked out the kinks in her neck and shoulder. 

When she turned her attention back to him, she was still looking mussed and too content for his sanity. The anger that had been reduced to barely a simmer with her antics blazed back into an inferno of irritation. "How could you not remember? It's right outside the door! I planted it weeks ago. There's even a little fence around it to keep anyone from inadvertently stepping on it when they walk down the path."

"Hey, Hardison." When the geek didn't hear her, she tried again - louder, this time. "Hey! Alec!"

His name filtered through the glaze of game in his eyes. "Yeah?"

"Didn't you say you took out the trash last night?"

"I took it out last night," he replied without turning his attention away from the game. Even if he had taken the time to actually listen to what she'd said, Hardison had been playing the game long enough that it was doubtful he could focus on the words long enough to get the real meaning. As it was, they were fortunate he got the general idea of the conversation and not just some gibberish that had nothing to do with the situation or, even, that went together to form a coherent sentence.

Parker narrowed her eyes. Now that she was awake, she seemed to want everyone else to be cognizant as well. "Did you stay on the path?"

"The path?"

"Yes. When you took the trash out, did you stay on the path?"

If Eliot hadn't known where Parker was going with the questions, he did now. There hadn't been footprints with a noticeable tread... because Hardison wore a pair of leather slippers that were slick on the bottom. The shortest way to the curbside from the back door was straight through the garden plot with the green shoots of basil that were just beginning to show promise.

He might have growled. Later on, Eliot couldn't remember exactly what had happened in those few seconds between the end of Parker's sentence and the realization that Hardison ruined his garden because of laziness. He must have made some sound or frowned impressively because Hardison suddenly straightened up, his attention riveted toward the sudden danger.

"I'm, uh, really sorry. I sort of forgot about the, uh, garden." For one of the first times since he'd met him, Eliot realized that Hardison had run out of words. He wasn't even trying to laugh his way out of the situation. Instead, he was noticeably paler and the words seemed to have fled in the face of Eliot's anger.

That was probably the only thing that could have saved Hardison in that moment. Eliot found his anger dissipating as he realized that he'd finally gotten his wish. Hardison had shut up.

"Dammit, Hardison." But the words didn't have any heat behind them. At least, not as much heat as they could have had or would have had a few moments earlier. "You're going to buy me more basil plants." When Hardison nodded but didn't bother to say anything, Eliot continued. "And you'll replace the little fence."

"The little fence," Hardison mimicked with a solemn nod of his head.

"And dishes. Make him wash the dishes every night for a week. No! Two weeks!" Parker began to clap as she thought of all the dishes she wouldn't have to wash but her smile disappeared as Eliot turned back toward her.

"You knew about this, didn't you? You knew that he ruined the garden but you didn't tell me. For that, Parker, you're going to wash the dishes all week. No! Two weeks."

With a satisfied grin, Eliot turned back toward the kitchen. Now that he was in a better mood, he was going to work on the sauce for the duck that had been in the oven. Thankfully, it wouldn't need basil.


End file.
